Kyle Cordle-Northwestern Mutual

05/20/2024

It is essential to have an investment strategy that creates a comfortable retirement income regardless of financial market performance. Having a variety of equities and stocks for the duration of your retirement withdrawals will be your greatest hedge against inflation, and the growth will make your maximum sustainable withdrawal amount exceptionally higher.

But what do you do when the likes of when massive downturns happen to your portfolio? Historically, there are market downturns of 20% or greater about once every five years. If you retire at 65, there is a good chance that you will experience about five of these.
If you take withdrawals from your portfolio during those years, then the cardinal sin has been committed – selling low. This will have a massively negative impact on the ability of your assets to last for your lifetime. If you don’t withdraw funds during those fiscal years, you are dramatically hindering your retirement lifestyle unnecessarily. It is essential to have an investment strategy that creates a comfortable retirement income regardless of financial market performance.

If you want to find that sweet spot that provides a sustainable income for the duration of your retirement, I’d love to talk with you.

05/17/2024

Some say: "you must have $2,000,000 to even consider retirement"
Some say: "only spend 4% total assets each year of retirement"
Some say: "you must have your home paid off before retiring"
Some say: "you must be Medicare eligible to be able to retire".

There are many misconceptions, and it’s quite common that people don’t realize how soon they will become financially independent. Sometimes, they already are and don’t realize it. The most common reason that people don’t take the step into retirement is they are not 100% confident that they have enough to last them the rest of their lives. There are many variables involved in calculating precisely what amount is needed in retirement assets to sustain a lifetime income (i.e., the amount of income need, inflation, taxation, capital market assumptions, social security benefits, other income sources, etc.). Proper retirement planning solves for precisely when retirement is possible and sustainable.

It might be time to find out, exactly, how your retirement forecast looks.

05/14/2024

As you prepare for retirement, these are some things you should be asking yourself:

• How much do I need so I can retire and not run out of money?
• How do I invest to make money, but don’t lose my retirement to market risk?
• How do I draw a paycheck from my investments?
• When should my spouse and I claim social security?
• How do I protect my money from inflation?
• How do I avoid paying too much in taxes on my money?

A lot of clients may not fully realize the answers to these questions when we meet for the first time. If there are any of these topics you feel like you a need a deeper understanding of, don’t worry we’re here to help.

04/01/2024

Here at Team Cordle, we embrace our beliefs and encourage our employees and clients to do the same. We are so glad we had the opportunity to celebrate Easter this weekend! It’s such a joy to spend time with friends and family while partaking in the traditional Easter festivities. Most importantly, though, we celebrate the sacrifice and the resurrection of our Lord and savior on this glorious day. We hope you had a memorable Easter weekend!

12/22/2023

To all my clients, team members, and co-workers, I want to say thank you and wish you a Merry Christmas.

12/15/2023

There is actually no evidence, whatsoever, that any financial advisor or financial firm can persistently outperform the financial markets or any other advisor or firm.

There is no way to predict the financial markets, therefore, there is no such thing as a sure thing in terms of growth or rate of return.

However, there is a way to guarantee yourself more assets over time.

This is accomplished by paying less in taxes.

Your financial advisor should be working with you on several things.

1. Asset Location  If Roth money is tax free upon distribution, and non-qualified accounts are more tax favorable (especially if they don’t hold bonds) upon distribution, then the aggressive components of your assets (i.e. stocks) should be held in those tax efficient assets. Stocks historically grow more over time, therefore, the assets that grow the most would ideally be tax free or more tax favorable. Security is important in a financial plan (i.e. bonds/fixed income assets), but more secure assets do not accumulate as much historically. If anything is going to grow less, it should be assets that are taxable upon distribution such as you pre-tax assets (i.e. IRA/401(k)/403(b)/457(b)). This is very often overlooked in financial planning, but it can save you thousands in taxes over your lifetime.

2. Tax Efficient Giving  There are quite a few ways that people can give the same amounts that they would otherwise give to their favorite charities, their church/parish, or any 501(c)(3) organization and receive significant additional tax deductions or eliminate taxes on a particular asset all together. Often times, these strategies just take a signed form to pay less in taxes for the charitable giving you are already doing

3. Tax Bracket Management  This may be the single most important tax strategy in an optimal financial plan. Most people don’t realize that, if they take too much from the wrong accounts in any given fiscal year during retirement, it can trigger taxation on your social security income. Additionally, if too much is withdrawn from the wrong account, it can trigger significant additional expenses on your healthcare expenses. Creating an income plan that results in the least amount of tax and health care expense is critical.

4. Legacy Planning  There are assets that are extremely efficient to leave to the next generation and then there are those that are incredibly inefficient (i.e. crushed by taxes) when left to the next generation, especially in light of new tax legislation in the last three or four years. It’s possible to keep the IRS’s impact on your legacy much lower, but it comes through strategic tax planning.

When clients meet with me, I pledge to not only manage your investments, but work to minimize and mitigate tax in your financial picture to every legal extent possible, helping you to ensure that your money stays with you.

12/12/2023

Retirement distribution strategy is one of the most crucial elements of financial planning, and one that is often overlooked as it reaches beyond basic portfolio management.

According to a study published by Vanguard in July of 2022, the distribution strategy can increase overall investment performance by as much as 1.2%. That usually equates to tens of thousands, if not, hundreds of thousands of dollars over time.

A distribution strategy involves many things
• What amount can sustainably be withdrawn from assets
• How to blend withdrawals from your different types of accounts so that your tax liability is as low as possible
• Where to pull from for unexpected expenses so as not to jump into a new tax bracket
• When to file for social security
• How to pay the least amount of tax possible on your social security income
• Where to pull from when the market brings your accounts down in value.

Retirement may seem a long way off or right around the corner, but with proactive planning today, we can help you be financially prepared for that decision.

12/07/2023

Wealth accumulation is an imporant part of financial planning - its not the entire picture.

A common belief is if you grow a large pot of wealth by the time you want to retire you’ll have life figured out financially.
This is a false notion.

A complete financial picture includes:
* How to get money distributed when you desire it as tax-efficiently as possible

* Making sure loved ones are financially prepared in the event of death

* Making sure the Estate is set up to transfer wealth to the next generation as tax-efficiently as possible

* Making sure assets hold up in the case of a long-term care need

* Ensuring a down-market will not ruin your desired lifestyle

While wealth accumulation is important, making sure you’re financially well off both in the present and in the future is also a necessity.

12/05/2023

There is far more to financial planning than investment management. However, optimal investment management is critical.

Efficiency in a portfolio indicates that you are receiving the rate of return that you should in exchange for the level of volatility in your portfolio.
When a portfolio grows less than the market indexes during positive market periods or when a portfolio falls in value more than the market indexes during periods of downturn, it indicates that the portfolio is inefficient.
This is usually caused by gaps and/or overlaps in the asset allocation.
To make it more practical, the pieces of the investment pie are too big, too small, or non-existent.

It’s almost like playing basketball. There is an efficient way to secure two points and an efficient way to secure three points.
It’s essential to financial success that your portfolio is taking the most efficient shots possible.

My team at Northwestern Mutual will work with you to form a complete financial plan that includes a proper investment strategy. By working together, we can help you score points in the most efficient way possible.

11/14/2023

Over the next couple of weeks, the Cordle team at Northwestern Mutual will be introducing ourselves so you can get to know the people who can help you put together your financial plan. First up is our financial advisor - Kyle Cordle

Name – Kyle Cordle

Title – WMC Financial Advisor

Qualifications – 8 years experience in financial planning. BBA with Emphasis in Finance from UW-Whitewater

What excites you about being in finance? – having the privilege of helping people achieve financial success that they often don’t realize is possible. The best feeling is when we can collaborate with people to improve their financial picture without any additional financial sacrifice.

What are your personal values? – Faith, Family, Integrity, Loyalty

What are your hobbies outside of the office? – Bible Study, Trivia, Reading, Pickleball

If there’s one thing you wish clients knew that they don’t know now, what is it? – They are likely paying more tax than they legally have to. There are so many ways to mitigate taxation that people are just not informed of.

08/16/2023

Did you know that saving for a rainy day can help make your retirement even sunnier (and help take the guesswork out of planning for it)? Check out today’s financial flash challenge and let me know if you’re up for it.

08/15/2023

Read Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company Chief Investment Officer Brent Schutte’s thoughts in this week’s Market Commentary.

Inflation continues to fade, but wage pressures suggest it is too early to declare victory.